Sound Transit's
Prop 1 in 2008:

$107 Billion Tax
Collection Authorized

by John Niles and
Jim MacIsaac

The public is
hearing two cost numbers for the Sound Transit Proposition 1 tax package on
the November 4, 2008 ballot. The figure Sound Transit is placing on the
November 4 ballot is $17.9 billion in construction costs.

However,
another valid
number for Prop 1 is $107 billion in authorized tax collections (see chart below),
conservatively estimated.

What's the Difference between Cost Estimates and
Authorized Taxes?

Sound
Transit's $17.9 billion represents the estimated cost of construction and
operations of Sound Transit's light rail additions and other services through
the scheduled end of the light rail expansion program in 2023. Sound Transit
will likely sell 30-year bonds through this last year of construction.

The much
larger $107 billion represents the tax collection authority of Sound Transit
through 2053 when the last of its 30 year bonds -- borrowed money to cover
light rail construction costs -- reach their maturity and are paid off.

Sound Transit Taxes are Authorized Forever

Approval of
Sound Transit Prop 1 would authorize extension in full of the Sound Move taxes
authorized in the 1996 vote. These existing taxes were at one time scheduled
to be considered for reduction -- a reduction called "roll back" -- after 2006. But since these existing sales taxes will be
used to secure all Prop 1 construction
bonds, Sound Transit will have legal claim to continue the 1996 sales tax in
full until all the bonds authorized by Prop 1 are paid off in 2053. This is the
scheme by which it secured ongoing authority to collect the Sound Move MVET
(car tabs tax) for 30 years, using this tax as part of the security for a 1999 bond
issuance.

Sound
Transit taxes listed in the Prop 1 authorizing Resolution 2008-11 are not
scheduled to ever end (sunset) since the agency needs the flexibility to keep
collecting them in perpetuity to cover ongoing
operating and maintenance costs, agency administrative costs, and capital replacement reserves.
The chart below prepared by Jim MacIsaac shows Sound Transit tax revenues thru 2053
when 30 year bonds sold at the end of the scheduled light rail construction
period would be scheduled to be paid off. Using 2053 as the end date for
calculation of total tax revenue is conservative considering the taxing
authority is in perpetuity. Even Sound Transit's own benefit-cost analysis
shows a financial horizon (end date) of 2063.

What
About the $157 Billion Tax Collections Widely Publicized for Prop 1 in 2007?

In 2007, the
combined Roads & Transit taxes for Prop 1 came out to $157 billion, of which
$141 billion was for Sound Transit and $16 billion was for the RTID road
taxes. Since the sales tax rate in 2008 is still 5/10 of one percent just like in
2007, why isn't $141 billion the number for estimated total tax collections
this year? One reason is that a less positive economic outlook
now has caused Sound Transit to lower its tax revenue forecast, even though
the agency has not stepped back from asking for the same tax rate. The biggest
reason, worth a $25 billion reduction from last year, is that we cut short the
time horizon of our tax collection calculations by four years to reflect the
claimed shorter time period of Sound Transit's construction program in the
2008 version of Prop 1. However, recall that Sound Transit's current
construction schedule to complete Sound Move is more than double the estimate
provided to voters in 1996.

The
45-year estimate of cumulative tax revenues for the Prop 1 package is now
estimated as follows from 2009 thru 2053:

In further support
of the judgment that Sound Transit will not likely
reduce its authorized tax collections in the decades ahead, consider two concerns expressed by ST's Expert Review
Panel (ERP) and Citizen Oversight Panel (COP): For several years the COP has
been warning ST that it is seriously underestimating the annual growth rate for
O&M costs. It recommends an annual growth rate of CPI+4% compared to ST's use of CPI+1%. If the COP's
concern alone comes to reality, ST will need to collect the combined 0.9%
Sound Move and Prop 1 sales taxes in
perpetuity.

Both panels are also concerned that Sound Transit
is underestimating the construction cost inflation rates as this multi-billion
dollar construction program loads and likely overloads the regional heavy
construction industry. If construction inflation costs are higher than an
average of +3.5% per year, the light rail construction program of Prop 1 may never be
completed without another tax increase. The construction cost index has
been increasing at over +5% per year for the past few years, and construction
materials costs over the past few years have been inflating at double-digit
rates. Much of this accelerated construction index rate for this region
is due to high demand for construction
that would be exacerbated with approval of the Prop 1 package.

Tax Cost per Household
Understated by Sound Transit

Sound Transit has
low-balled the estimated cost per household of the Prop 1 package approval.
First, ST omits any inclusion of the Sound Move tax
extension that is being approved with Prop 1. The agency then claims that the annual
cost per adult would be $69 annually in the sales taxes additions being proposed.
This ramps up to around $125 per household, which ST claimed as the cost for
its part of Prop1 in 2007. Sound Transit bases its sales tax estimates on a State
Department of Revenue study that found that 60% of sales tax revenues come
directly from households, and 40% come from businesses.

But Sound Transit dismisses the
40% of sales tax collected as the tax on business purchases (including office
supplies and other purchases by self-employed people). This dismissal totally ignores that
most business taxes are passed through to
householders/consumers in the costs of goods and services or net income
reductions. It next
reduces the 60% from households to 40% by excluding high-income households,
assuming everyone claims associated federal tax deductions, and making other
assertions to reduce the per household figure.

In contrast, the estimate in the
chart above assumes more realistically that 80% of sales taxes paid by
businesses are passed on to the households
within the Sound Transit tax assessment areas, while acknowledging growth
in the number of taxable households. Those year-by-year estimated household
tax levies are shown in the right-hand column of the three under "annual tax per
household" on the above schedule of annual Prop 1 taxation
(download chart in pdf).

During 2009, the first full year of
Prop 1 tax collections, the Prop 1
tax per household would average $610. At the end of the light rail
construction period, the amount would be $965. This annual tax amount would
inflate to $2,634 by 2053. The total cost to
a household that lives through this 45-year period would be $60,400.

When the Seattle Monorail Project was
being disclosed with a cost of under $2 billion, it was
strongly supported by the voting public. But when the public was informed
that its costs of construction, operations, and financing would be $12 billion
over a 50-year period to be paid by ongoing tax levies,
public support totally reversed. What will the public do when the $107
billion taxes over 45 years proposed in Prop 1 sinks in?